Madness in Medieval Arthurian Literature
Madness in Medieval Arthurian Literature
Madness in Medieval Arthurian Literature
The label mad is one which has since time immemorial been ascribed
to those who do not conform to the current norms of a society; who
display abnormal behaviour. Its scope goes far beyond the realm of
the affliction of mental illness implied to embrace a range of
characteristics which we today would probably no longer label mad;
subnormal intelligence, post-traumatic stress disorder, manic
depression, self-imposed eremitic lifestyle, eccentric personalities, all
involve behaviour likely to have been perceived as mad. Arthurian
literature of the Middle Ages is indeed not unfamiliar with the depiction
of characters answering this description. Obvious examples include
Chrtien de Troyes Yvain, the Knight with the Lion, whose episode
roaming the woods as a madman is precipitated by rejection by his wife
Lunete upon his failure to return to her from his knightly adventures
within the agreed time limit. It is only when a fair lady takes pity on the
wretch as he sleeps in the woods and applies her ointment that a cure is
effected. Lancelot too undergoes a well-documented episode of insanity
when he is banished by Guinevere after she finds him in the arms of
Elaine: as a result of this liaison Galahad is born. Even Tristan, famed
lover of Queen Iseult of Cornwall, has two surviving poems dedicated
to his episode of madness. The Folie Tristan de Berne and Folie Tristan
dOxford recount the heros attempt to make himself known to the
Queen at court after a long period of absence. The debate as to whether
his mad behaviour is a true reflection of his state of mind or an
elaborate ploy to enable entry to court still continues.
But these and other well-known examples, which are taken up again
and again by romancers, are almost all episodes of love-madness:
simply put, a man falls in love, is rejected by his lady and thus loses his
reason. The victims display characteristics already long associated with
the affliction of madness withdrawal from society, refuge sought in
the woods, acquisition of an animal-like appearance including
nakedness, wild behaviour, eating wild plants. A certain homogeneity is
preserved as each character reappears in new versions: their story is
retold, the episode of madness is transferred, not developed, and taken
on, unchanging, as an aspect of their character.
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SARAH LOWSON
Richard Bernheimer, Wild Men in the Middle Ages: a study in art, sentiment
and demonology (New York: Octagon, 1970), 9.
79
Irish, Scottish and Welsh tales exist detailing the exploits of a man
who loses his sanity as a result of his experiences in battle, and
subsequently retreats to a life segregated from civilisation. This basic,
instinctual madness, a regression to a state of nature, is gradually
refined through a number of stories, undergoing influences from the
Welsh saints tradition and acquiring other religious overtones until, in
the Vita Merlini of Geoffrey of Monmouth, we are presented with a
character, who, whilst nominally still mad, in fact transposes this
condition onto the sanity of society itself. The conclusion to the tale
affirms the validity of Merlins choice to opt out from a society which
he regards as morally dubious, and leaves us with the suggestion that it
is only our prejudice which labels him as mad. Apparently cured of
his madness and having his previously respected wisdom restored to
him, he is asked to return to lead his people:
I have lived long, then, and by now the weight of my years has told on me.
While I remain under the green leaves of Calidon, its riches shall be my
delight a greater delight than the gems that India produces, or all the gold
men say is found along the banks of the Tagus, or the corn of Sicily, or the
grapes of pleasant Methis more pleasing than the high towers or wall-girt
cities or clothes redolent of Tyrian scents. Nothing can please me so,
nothing can tear me from my Calidon, ever dear to me, I feel. Here I will be
while I live, happy with fruit and herbs: and I will purify my flesh with
pious fasting , to enable me to enjoy endless everlasting life.2
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SARAH LOWSON
about the conception of the future king, Arthur, the most famous of
men, who subsequently won great renown by his outstanding bravery.3
But as I noted earlier, this Merlin is himself the product of an
evolutionary process which takes him from a soldier traumatised by
battle, and driven mad by guilt, via the influence of Celtic Wild Man
traditions and Christianity to a figure who questions the sanity of
civilisation itself. It is generally accepted that tales found in Welsh,
Irish and Scottish literatures all contain the beginnings of this process.
All three contain versions which tell of the central character, variously
called Myrddin (Welsh), Lailoken (Scottish) and Suibhne (Irish), who is
involved in a battle of some sort, loses his reason and exiles himself
from society in a fit of madness. The life he then leads reflects the
Celtic Wild Man tradition, as he removes himself from society to live in
the woods amongst the animals, adopting their appearance and way of
living.
Whilst this basic outline underlies all three versions, its diverse
interpretation is evidenced in the differences between them. The Welsh
poems which talk of Myrddin describe his life in the forest as the
epitome of this Wild Man figure: Snow up to my hips among the forest
wolves / Icicles in my hair.4 It is grief and guilt which have driven him
into this state of madness and physical exile: grief at the hideous loss of
life in the battle where his people were defeated, guilt at his
responsibility for the death of his sisters son in this slaughter.
Such descriptions are also found of Lailoken: a naked madman,
hairy and completely destitute ... wander(ing) alone in this lonely place
and keep(ing) company with the beasts of the wood.5 He is a fugitive
from battle. As with Myrrdin, guilt is noted as the cause of his
madness: For I was the cause of the slaughter of all the dead who fell
in that battle.6 Here, however, we find a religious element is
introduced in the form of St Kentigern, a local holy man who takes pity
on this wretch when he disrupts his services. He attempts, without total
success, to cure Lailoken of his madness through confession and
3
5
6
81
Buile Suibhne (The Frenzy of Suibhne), trans. by J.G. OKeefe (London: Nutt,
1913).
SARAH LOWSON
82
83
10
Jean-Marie Fritz, Le Discours du fou au moyen ge, XIIe- XIIIe sicles: tude
compare des discours littraire, mdical, juridique et thologique de la folie,
Perspectives littraires (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1992), 264.
G.D. West, An Index of Proper Names in French Arthurian Prose Romances,
University of Toronto Romance Series, 35 (Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 1978), 889.
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SARAH LOWSON
Et messires Yvains lan prisa mains, car il cuida que il fust de mal affaire ...
Et il lo maine au gu et passe outre. Et lors commence a regarder a la reine,
et ses chevaus lam porte tot contreval la riviere. Not gaires al quil
encontra Daguenet lo fol, qui li demande o il vait. Et il pense, si ne dit rien.
Et Daguenez dit: Ge vos praig. Si lan ramaigne, si que li chevaliers ni
met deffanse...
Daguenet, fait il (Yvain), par la foi que vos devez monseignor lo roi,
comment lo prestes vos?
Ge lencontrai, fait il, lonc cele riviere, si ne me vost dire mot...
Et la reine sen rist mout, et tuit cil qui loent...Cil Daguenez estoit
chevaliers sans faille, mais il estoit fox nas et la plus coarde piece de char
que lan sast.11
12
13
14
85
16
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SARAH LOWSON
86
Ibid., 268.
Ibid., 345.